US Gov Bans Anthropic, Taps OpenAI
The Trump administration has banned all federal agencies and military contractors from doing business with AI startup Anthropic, citing national security and "supply risk." Hours later, the Pentagon announced a new partnership with rival OpenAI, signaling a decisive shift in the government's preferred AI partner for military and intelligence applications.
The ban follows a public standoff between Anthropic and the Pentagon over the AI company's ethical guardrails. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei refused to eliminate "red lines" that prevent its Claude AI from being used for mass domestic surveillance or to power fully autonomous weapons without human oversight. The dispute escalated when Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth demanded "full, unrestricted access" to Anthropic's models. In an unprecedented move against a U.S. tech firm, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth officially designated Anthropic a "supply-chain risk." This designation, typically used for foreign adversaries like China's Huawei, bars any company that does business with the U.S. military from also conducting any commercial activity with Anthropic. The administration has mandated a six-month phase-out period for all federal agencies. The directive impacts numerous federal agencies beyond the Pentagon, including the Department of Health and Human Services, which had rolled out Claude to its staff. Until the ban, Anthropic's Claude was the only AI model deployed on the Pentagon's classified networks, used by the CIA and NSA. Anthropic has stated its intention to challenge the "legally unsound" supply chain risk designation in court. Hours after the ban, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced a new deal to deploy his company's models on the Pentagon's classified networks. Curiously, Altman stated the Pentagon agreed to the same core principles OpenAI shares with Anthropic: prohibiting mass surveillance and requiring human oversight for the use of force. However, reports suggest OpenAI currently lacks the secure, classified infrastructure that Anthropic already had in place.
